My salon day in with Tope's hair

16:53
Naija girl next door
4 Comments

Hi everyone!
I've been away for far too long. 10 whole days! I'm sorry for the late replies to comments and emails, my network provider really did me in. I eventually had to get a new one but I'm still working out kinks, coupled with the fact that I'm newly on the job market hehe... Anyway I'm glad to be back (with a super long post).

Tope's ( abbreviated ) Hair Story
Her hair is relaxed, she started her hair journey around May 2013 with dry, breaking hair that had been stuck at neck length for a long time. She was consistent and saw great improvement in health and length. Then she got a little lazy and stopped all the good stuff she was doing. Her hair deteriorated and by March 2014 she was back at square one. She was upset at losing all that progress and was ready to get back on the horse.

March 2014

She's been protective styling, going to bed with a satin scarf, avoiding direct heat, deep conditioning, moisturising and sealing everyday, but we noticed her hair felt really dry between m & s sessions.Game Plan:
1. I took a look at her deep conditoners:

i) Natures Gentle Touch Herbalblend Deep Conditioning Cholesterol Treatment- this has mineral oil (paraffinum liquidum) as the 3rd ingredient. Some people's hair don't respond well to that. *raises hand*
It also has keratin protein further down the list and may be better as a monthly protein treatment than a weekly deep conditioner or it might cause protein overload= dryness.
ii) Profectiv Growth Renew Root Rebound Deep Conditioner- this has mineral oil as the SECOND ingredient and petrolatum (petroleum jelly) as the third.
Petroleum products like these are water repelling and once they sit on top of hair, moisture has little chance of getting in.
So we eliminated these two.
2. I also recommended baggying overnight every now and then ie putting on a plastic cap to keep the moisture in.
Her hair is sooo much better now :D
3. I haven't felt the need for a packaged leave-in conditioner in my regimen but Tope may need one to boost her moisture retention. We're on the hunt.

Salon Day:

It was actually in her house :p
Tope's hair was 5 months post relaxer yesterday. She wanted a touch up and a roller set for body, not curls. Before I got there, she had done step 1: based her scalp with petroleum jelly to prevent burns and coated her previously relaxed hair with coconut oil to prevent overprocessing. Good girl.
We got everything else ready:Step 2: I applied relaxer to her new growth only. I used my gloved hands to part and apply. We used the Creme of Nature Argan oil relaxer kit.Step 3: Smoothed each section first between my gloved fingers , then with the back of a wide toothed comb. None of that combing, pulling, dragging in salons. No sir.Step 4: Rinsing out- the instructions in the box said not to exceed 24 minutes for Tope's hair type. We were done and we rinsed out with warm water after 20 minutes.Step 5: mid relaxer protein treatment. Relaxers break protein bonds so you have to sort of patch up with a protein treatment to replace what's lost. After rinsing out the relaxer, hair cuticles are raised and so your treatment penetrates maximally. Neutralising closes the cuticles. I applied ORS hair mayo mixed with an egg all over her hair and rinsed out after 5 minutes.Step 6: neutralise: with the shampoo in the kit. We lathered and rinsed 3 times. At this point her hair felt squeaky clean and definitely needed conditioner.Step 7: deep condition: with the CON Intensive Conditioning Treatment in the kit, mixed with ORS replenishing conditioner and a teaspoon each of olive oil, Nigerian black PKO and honey.
Applied in 4 sections. No hooded dryer or steamer so I dipped a towel in warm water, squeezed well, wrapped around her hair and covered with a plastic cap. I used a blowdrier set on high for heat to generate steam from the towel...
...then the plastic cap shrunk at one side (uh oh) - the heat had melted it. We changed to a regular shower cap and continued for 15 minutes, then we waited another 30 minutes before rinsing out.

Her hair was soooft, praise God! It's no easy task with Tope's hair.
We tshirt dried for 30 minutes.Step 8: styling- I applied the Gloss & Shine Polisher (a heat protectant because it has lots of silicones) in 4 sections and started the roller set. For each section about to be rolled, I spritzed with water, sealed with olive oil and trimmed the tips.
Then we blow dried on low til it was just about dry.

Her hair was healthy, dark and shiny, no burns, very little breakage throughout and she has retained a lot of length since two months ago in March.

May 2014

I pronounce it a very successful salon day in. :D
Tope was very happy and returned the favour by moisturising and sealing my hair when I was too sleepy to do it myself. Bless :*
Xx
NGND

Share this post:

4 comments:

Hi sandra. Love ur blog. I have natural hair and my hair is as tough as they come and i use the profectiv root rebound deep conditioner and its soooo good. Nothing makes my hair feel that good and my hair stays soft for days.i think her prob was just the gentle touch cuz that never worked for me.

Hi Ginika! Thanks:)It always amazes me how what one person's hair loves, another's hates. I'm glad it worked for you.Tope used both on different occasions for a while and didn't notice any difference in her hair. It was her hair's reaction that made me query what was in them. Personally I have never used either of these conditioners, I noticed early on that my hair abhors anything with petroleum products in it. Experience has made me wary of them.

If someone is using a product that works for them and it has mineral oil or petrolatum in it, absolutely stick with what works. But if they notice issues with their hair like Tope did, and we can't find something else responsible for it, I say cut out the petroleum prods and see if it helps. Either way just give your hair what it likes. :*

I finished one tub of Organics Hair Mayo and it has Paraffinum as the second or third ingredient. I bought it because they used it on my hair at one Natural Hair salon last year when my hair was being SO difficult and I watched the hair turn to a soft and shiny poof after steaming. Crazy cos Mineral oils are supposed to be the bad guys, so I wouldn't boldly advise anyone to get on that. I didn't notice any adverse effects either, when I used it on my own. Good job with Tope's hair! And I've taken something away from this- your blow-drying/rollers technique :D

You're not alone, many people rave about that hair mayo. I'm scared to try cos my hair revolts against mineral oil but even Tope uses it as a protein treatment and it does the job without any problems. I don't know if it's their formula, or if it's cos she shampoos it out after the treatment. It sha works, kudos to them. Thanks :D I'd love to see how yours turns out